Sjernarøyane is an

island group An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands, or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands. Examples of archipelagos include: the Indonesian Archi ...

in Stavanger municipality in Rogaland county,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

. The islands are located in the

Nedstrandsfjorden Boknafjord or Boknafjorden ( en, Bokna Fjord) is a fjord located in Rogaland county, Norway. The huge fjord lies between the cities of Stavanger and Haugesund and dominates the central part of the county. The main part of the fjord is shared bet ...

, west of the large island of Ombo and north of the large island of

Finnøy Finnøy is a former municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. The island municipality existed from 1838 until its dissolution in 2020 when it was merged into Stavanger Municipality. It was located in the traditional district of Ryfylke. The ad ...

. As of 2014, the islands were home to 365 residents. The islands were historically part of the municipality of Sjernarøy before merging into the municipality of

in 1965. Then in 2020, the islands were transferred to Stavanger municipality. The Aubøsund strait, which runs between the islands of Aubø and Bjergøy was a historically important trading post. The name comes from

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlemen ...

word ''"Sjǫrn"'' which means the number seven, since historically the archipelago had seven inhabited islands. Today the Sjernarøyane islands refer to the group of many small and larger islands. The inhabited islands today include Kyrkjøy, Bjergøy, Eriksholmen, Tjul, Nord-Hidle, Aubø, Helgøy, and Nord-Talgje. The uninhabited islands include Hestholmen, Finnborg, Lundarøynå, Norheimsøynå, Norheimslamholmen, Staup, Fiskholmane, as well as many other smaller islands. Sjernarøy Church is located on the main island of Kyrkjøy. The island group is only accessible by boat, however all of the islands except for Nord-Hidle are connected to each other by a series of bridges. Nord-Hidle is not connected to any other islands. There are several regular ferry routes connecting the Sjernarøyane islands to the mainland as well as to other nearby islands.

References

Islands of Stavanger {{Rogaland-geo-stub

See also

References